Watching food prices climb over the past few weeks has been difficult - my heart goes out to all those facing difficult times. Recently, I wrote in the Huffington Post about global food insecurity. In February, food prices reached their highest point since the UN began monitoring them in 1990. BBC reports that the situation is mainly because of Eastern European droughts and Australian floods.
Fluctuations in oil prices have contributed to this trend. Virtually every type of food except for sugar has increased in price. The world's poorest will be affected to the greatest extent, making the food price situation a crisis of international concern.

Over the past year, the price of grains has risen by 70%, and world grain production is down. Nevertheless, there are reasons for hope: Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan have begun recovering from their droughts and wildfires. Hopefully, agricultural production will soon recover, and in the meantime the global community needs to band together to help struggling nations. To read the full story, click here.